Antigen presenting cells (APC) are important in eliciting an effective immune response. APC not only present antigens to T cells with antigen-specific receptors, but also provide the signals necessary for T cell activation. Such signals remain incompletely defined, but are known to involve a variety of cell surface molecules as well as cytokines or growth factors. The factors necessary for the activation of naive or unprimed T cells may be different from those required for the re-activation of previously primed memory T cells. Although monocytes and B cells have been shown to be competent APC, their antigen presenting capacities appear to be limited to the re-activation of previously sensitized T cells. Hence, they are not capable of directly activating functionally naive or unprimed T cell populations. On the other hand, dendritic cells are capable of both activating naive and previously primed T cells.
Dendritic cells are a heterogeneous cell population with a distinctive morphology and a widespread tissue distribution, including blood. (See, e.g., Steinman, Ann. Rev. Immunol. 9:271-96 (1991)). The cell surface of dendritic cells is unusual, with characteristic veil-like projections. Mature dendritic cells are generally identified as CD3−, CD11c+, CD19−, CD83+, CD86+ and HLA-DR+.
Dendritic cells process and present antigens, and stimulate responses from naive and unprimed T cells and memory T cells. In particular, dendritic cells have a high capacity for sensitizing MHC-restricted T cells and are very effective at presenting antigens to T cells, both self-antigens during T cell development and tolerance, and foreign antigens during an immune response. In addition to their role in antigen presentation, dendritic cells also directly communicate with non-lymph tissue and survey non-lymph tissue for an injury signal (e.g., ischemia, infection, or inflammation) or tumor growth. Once signaled, dendritic cells initiate an immune response by releasing cytokines that stimulate activity of lymphocytes and monocytes.
Due to their effectiveness at antigen presentation, there is growing interest in using dendritic cells as an immunostimulatory agent, both in vivo and ex vivo. The use of isolated dendritic cells as immunostimulatory agents has been limited, however, due to the low frequency of dendritic cells in peripheral blood and the low purity of dendritic cells isolated by prior methods. In particular, the frequency of dendritic cells in human peripheral blood has been estimated at about 0.1% of the white cells. Similarly, there is limited accessibility of dendritic cells from other tissues, such as lymphoid organs. The low frequency of dendritic cells has increased interest in isolating cell population enriched in dendritic cell precursors, and culturing these precursors ex vivo or in vitro to obtain enriched populations of immature or mature dendritic cells. Because the characteristics of dendritic cell precursors remain incompletely defined, methods typically used for isolating dendritic cell precursors do not result in purified fractions of the desired precursors, but instead generally produce mixed populations of leukocytes enriched in dendritic cell precursors. Several cell types have been identified as having the potential to function as dendritic cell precursors. Blood-derived CD14+ monocytes, especially those that express on their surface the receptor for the growth factor granulocyte-monocyte colony stimulating factor (GM-CSF) are known dendritic cell precursors. Other blood-derived dendritic cell precursors can be isolated by first removing monocytes and other “non-dendritic cell precursors.” (See, e.g., U.S. Pat. Nos. 5,994,126 and 5,851,756.). Yet other known dendritic cell precursors include bone marrow-derived cells that express the CD34 cell surface marker.
Cell populations enriched in dendritic cell precursors have been obtained by various methods, such as, for example, density gradient separation, fluorescence activated cell sorting, immunological cell separation techniques, e.g., panning, complement lysis, rosetting, magnetic cell separation techniques, nylon wool separation, and combinations of such methods. (See, e.g., O'Doherty et al., J. Exp. Med. 178:1067-76 (1993); Young and Steinman, J. Exp. Med. 171:1315-32 (1990); Freudenthal and Steinman, Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci. USA 87:7698-702 (1990); Macatonia et al., Immunol. 67:285-89 (1989); Markowicz and Engleman, J. Clin. Invest. 85:955-61 (1990) all incorporated herein by reference in their entirety). Methods for immuno-selecting dendritic cells include, for example, using antibodies to cell surface markers associated with dendritic cell precursors, such as anti-CD34 and/or anti-CD14 antibodies coupled to a substrate. (See, e.g., Bernhard et al., Cancer Res. 55:1099-104 (1995); Caux et. al., Nature 360:258-61 (1992)).
In one typical example method, leukocytes are isolated by a leukapheresis procedure. Additional methods are typically used for further purification to enrich for cell fractions thought to contain dendritic cells and/or dendritic cell precursors. Similarly, methods such as differential centrifugation (e.g., isolation of a buffy coat), panning with monoclonal antibodies specific for certain cell surface proteins (e.g., positive and negative selection), and filtration also produce a crude mixture of leukocytes containing dendritic cell precursors.
Another reported method for isolating proliferating dendritic cell precursors is to use a commercially treated plastic substrate (e.g., beads or magnetic beads) to selectively remove adherent monocytes and other “non-dendritic cell precursors.” (See, e.g., U.S. Pat. Nos. 5,994,126 and 5,851,756). The adherent monocytes and non-dendritic cell precursors are discarded while the non-adherent cells are retained for ex vivo culture and maturation. In another method, apheresis cells were cultured in plastic culture bags to which plastic, i.e., polystyrene or styrene, microcarrier beads were added to increase the surface area of the bag. The cells were cultured for a sufficient period of time for cells to adhere to the beads and the non-adherent cells were washed from the bag. (Maffei, et al., Transfusion 40:1419-1420 (2000); WO 02/44338, incorporated herein by reference).
Subsequent to essentially all of the reported methods for the preparation of a cell population enriched for dendritic cell precursors, the cell populations are typically cultured ex vivo or in vitro for differentiation of the dendritic cell precursors or maintenance, and/or expansion of the dendritic cells. Briefly, ex vivo differentiation of monocytic dendritic cell precursors has involved culturing the mixed cell populations enriched for dendritic cell precursors in the presence of combinations of cellular growth factors, such as cytokines. For example, monocytic dendritic cell precursors require granulocyte/monocyte colony stimulating factor (GM-CSF) in combination with at least one other cytokine selected from, for example, either Interleukin 4 (IL-4), Interleukin 15 (IL-15), Interleukin 13 (IL-13), interferon α (IFN-α), and the like, to differentiate the cells into an optimal state for antigen uptake, processing, and/or presentation. The numbers of dendritic cells from non-monocytic dendritic cell precursors, such as those obtained by removal of monocytes and other nondendritic precursor cells (adsorption to a plastic surface) or selection for CD34+ cells, have also been expanded by culture in the presence of certain cytokines. Either GM-CSF alone or a combination of GM-CSF and IL-4 have been used in methods to produce dendritic cell populations from such proliferating dendritic cell precursors for therapeutic use.
The effectiveness of such ex vivo differentiation, maintenance and/or expansion has been limited, however, by the quality of the starting population enriched in dendritic cells and dendritic cell precursors. Under some culture conditions, populations of dendritic cells and dendritic cell precursors that are heavily contaminated with neutrophils, macrophages and lymphocytes, or combinations thereof, can be overtaken by the latter cells, resulting in a poor yield of dendritic cells. Culture of dendritic cells containing large numbers of neutrophils, macrophages and lymphocytes, or combinations thereof, are less suitable for use as immunostimulatory preparations.
Immature or mature dendritic cells, once obtained, typically have been exposed to a target antigen(s) and maturation agents to provide activated mature dendritic cells. In general, the antigen has been added to a cell population enriched for immature or mature dendritic cells under suitable culture conditions. In the case of immature dendritic cells, the cells are then allowed sufficient time to take up and process the antigen, and express antigenic peptides on the cell surface in association with either MHC class I or class II markers. Antigen can be presented to immature dendritic cells on the surface of cells, in purified form, in a semi-purified form, such as an isolated protein or fusion protein (e.g., a GM-CSF-antigen fusion protein), as a membrane lysate, as a liposome-protein complex, and other methods. In addition, as mature dendritic cells are not capable of taking up and processing antigen, antigenic peptides that bind to MHC class I or MHC class II molecules can be added to mature dendritic cells for presentation.
Once activated dendritic cells have been obtained, they have been administered to a patient to stimulate an immune response. Activated dendritic cells can be administered to a patient by bolus injection, by continuous infusion, sustained release from implants, or other suitable techniques known in the art. The activated dendritic cells also can be co-administered with physiologically acceptable carriers, excipients, buffers and/or diluents. Further, activated dendritic cells can be used to activate T cells, e.g., cytotoxic T cells, ex vivo using methods well known to the skilled artisan. The antigen specific cytotoxic T cells can then be administered to a patient to treat, for example, a growing tumor, or a bacterial or viral infection. These compositions can be used by themselves or as an adjuvant to other therapies, such as, for example, surgical resection, chemotherapy, radiation therapy, and combinations thereof, as well as other therapeutic modalities appropriate for the condition being treated.
The present invention has found that contrary to prior methods monocytic dendritic cells precursors can be differentiated into immature dendritic cells and maintained in a suitable condition that is fully competent to process and present antigen in the presence of GM-CSF alone without additional cytokines. The methods comprise providing a cell population comprising dendritic cell precursors which have not been activated and culturing the cells in vitro or ex vivo in a dendritic cell culture medium that has been supplemented with GM-CSF without any additional cytokines. Methods typically used to enrich cell populations for dendritic cell precursors can activate the precursor cells initiating terminal differentiation of the cells into, for example, macrophage. The addition of other cytokines, for example IL-4, IL-13, IL-15, or TNF-α, countered the effects of the isolation associated activation of the cells. The practice of the methods of the present invention provides for a simple and more cost effective method to obtain and maintain immature dendritic cells in a state optimized for the uptake, processing and presentation of a selected antigen.